There have been reports of phone calls made from a Department of Labor phone number (202-693-2700) soliciting personal information and/or promising funds to those receiving the calls. These calls were not authorized by the Department of Labor. ETA and the Department of Labor do not and will not solicit Personally Identifiable Information, such as your Social Security number, or other personal information, over the phone. If you receive a call like this from a number that looks like an ETA phone number, consider it a spam call, hang up, and report the call to the US Department of Labor at 1-855-522-6748.

What's New in Workforce Investment?

The Obama Administration has announced that it is launching competitions to create three new manufacturing innovation institutes with a Federal commitment of $200 million across five Federal agencies – Defense, Energy, Commerce, NASA, and the National Science Foundation.

To build off the initial success of a pilot institute headquartered in Youngstown, Ohio, the President announced in the State of the Union that his Administration would move forward and launch three new manufacturing innovation institutes this year. The President will continue to call on Congress to act on his proposal for a one-time $1 billion investment to create a network of 15 manufacturing innovation institutes across the country.

The Department of Defense will lead two of the new Institutes, focused on “Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation” and “Lightweight and Modern Metals Manufacturing”, and the Department of Energy will be leading one new institute on “Next Generation Power Electronics Manufacturing”.

All three institutes will be selected through an open, competitive process, led by the Departments of Energy and Defense, with review from a multi-agency team of technical experts. Winning teams will be selected and announced later this year. Federal funds will be matched by industry co-investment, support from state and local governments, and other sources. Like the pilot institute, these Institutes are expected to become financially self-sustaining, and the plan to achieve this objective will be a critical evaluation criterion in the selection process. DOD and DOE are opening the competition for the three new institutes immediately.